Prompt: Reluctant Siren

Thanks to Katarina (Zirine on deviantart) for permission to use her stunning image, “Siren”!

Mirenka hides in the watery depths of the graveyard she has made. It is the least she can do, to keep company with the remains of all those she has drawn to their deaths. And always, always, she fights the compulsion.

Feeling the wake of a boat moving on the surface far above, she holds tight to the mast of a ship she sunk a hundred years before, shaking her head from side to side, her silver hair streaming around her pale skin. She opens her mouth in a silent scream of frustration. Sorrow. The unbearable pressure builds in her chest until she thinks it might burst through her skin. Would the song flow out with her blood, thinning in the water until it disappeared forever?

Her body fights her will. Even as she clings tight to the ancient wood, her tail thrashes for freedom. Her fingers lose their grip, slide up the length of the mast to the top knob, squeeze around that as her tail undulates up and down, pulling her toward the surface. Her nails scrape the wood until she is free. Her body ignores her will, flies up toward the surface.

With her first breath, the song breaks free. Silver tears reflect in the moonlight, leaving traces of her sorrow on her skin. In this, she is as beautiful as she is dangerous, even to herself. The poison in her tears burns into her skin, silver designs that cover her brow, her cheeks, her breast, and curl down her belly to her tail. The thick scales of her tail are as impervious to her sorrow as to her will.

Her song soars over the ocean waves, but the boat is too far away. She smiles. Hard won triumph. Her head falls back and she floats, the cool waves washing her tears away. She prays to the moon. Begs her silver goddess.

Free me.

Bathing in the moon’s silver light, she opens her arms wide and lets her body sink below the waves…

Dogs in house	Houdini, Maize, Malachi
Time writing	~25 minutes, interrupted
January word count	1152